Furious Cornish villagers on historic estate face being made homeless after eviction notices
Furious Cornish villagers on historic estate face being made homeless in months after houses they have lived in for up to 20 years are put up for sale
Angry tenants at Port Eliot in Cornwall say they are being turfed out of homes Some have lived on the grand 6,000 acre estate in St Germans for up to 20 yearsTrustees’ management team at Savills have vowed to sell four of the properties Savills stated that all those given notice were on an assured shorthold tenancy
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Tenants living on a grand Cornish estate are being turned out of their homes after decades as trustees have decided to sell their properties.
The four properties – located within the 6,000 acre Port Eliot estate, in St Germans, Cornwall – have been put on the market by the Estate trustees’ management team at Savills.
The tenants have each been issued with a Section 21 notice on March 24 – extended to three months instead of the usual two month eviction period. One resident claimed the decision was ‘totally unexpected’ and ‘couldn’t have come at a worse time’.
Some residents have lived in their homes for as long as 20 years and Cornwall itself is in the grip of a housing crisis.
Savills stated that all those issued notice were on an assured shorthold tenancy – meaning it can issue notice at any point without giving a reason.
One of those affected said: ‘I have been a tenant at Port Eliot for many, many years, and I’ve lived in a couple of properties and our understanding at the time was that the trust wouldn’t be selling the properties on.
The four properties, located within the 6,000 acre Port Eliot estate, in St Germans, have been put on the market by the Estate trustees’ management team at Savills
Grade I listed Port Eliot House is the oldest continually-lived in house in England, dating back to the 6th Century
Peregrine Nicholas Eliot, 10th Earl of St Germans, who died in 2016 aged 75
‘As time has gone by we got a Section 21 notice just pushed through our letterbox a couple of weeks ago to say they are selling our home.
‘It was a no fault eviction and basically we had three months to find somewhere else to live and move out so I’m quite aggrieved because we’ve ploughed a lot of money into the house. We spent an awful lot of time making it a nice place and the estate is going to benefit from it basically.’
She explained that she shared her story – believing it to be a single case – to a local Facebook page at which point things ‘ballooned’. She had numerous other people reach out explaining they too were being evicted.
‘Myself and my next door neighbour are being evicted,’ she said. ‘And I know another person who is moving on their own as they have purchased a house and I’m pretty sure they will sell that as well. It could be a whole street that’s going.’
She added that she knows it’s not her property at the end of the day but that with the housing crisis it’s no doubt going to leave people without homes to go to.
‘We were hoping that maybe the Duchy of Cornwall might look into buying some more property here like it has in the past but really we don’t know what’s going to happen yet,’ she continued.
The house is within an estate of 6,000-acres which extends into the neighbouring villages of Tideford, Trerulefoot and Polbathic. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the Eliot family invested substantially in the estate by building farmhouses, fishermen’s cottages and other homes throughout the land.
Many of these properties remain part of the estate to this day and are rented out to local residents and friends of the family.
Italian style designed outdoor swimming pool on the Port Eliot estate
Data from Cornwall Council shows where the county’s 13,500 second homes were distributed in 2018
Some properties have been sold over the years. The Duchy of Cornwall estate purchased the southern portion of the Port Eliot estate in 2014 as part of the most substantial purchase of farmland made in Cornwall since The Prince of Wales became Duke of Cornwall in 1952.
The Duchy of Cornwall does not own any of the properties currently being sold.
Another affected tenant said they were being ‘turfed out’ after 13 years and were ‘heartbroken’ as a result. A third said they were struggling to find a property with the ongoing housing crisis and having pets which makes finding a property even more challenging in the current climate.
A Savills spokesperson said: ‘The Port Eliot Estate has decided to sell a small number of its properties occupied on assured shorthold tenancies. The family is working to try and find alternative accommodation on the Estate.
‘The tenants were served notice on 25th March and the notice period has been extended to at least three months instead of the statutory two months. The proceeds from the sale of these properties will facilitate reinvestment into the remaining Estate.’
There were some questions over who was actually responsible for the decision with some claiming that Savills had full management responsibilities of the estate but that has been confirmed as untrue. Savills manages the Port Eliot Estate on behalf of its trustees. Savills is therefore the primary contact for estate management queries, however it takes instruction from the trustees.
Port Eliot Estate declined to comment saying that the sale of the properties is being dealt with by Savills.
